GDC 10: New Info On EA and 38 Studios' New RPG

Share.

Writer R.A. Salvatore talks Copernicus, Project Mercury and how to deal with death.

By Ryan Geddes

Electronic Arts announced this week that it has teamed up with former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's fledgling 38 Studios to publish a new role-playing game called Project Mercury. The RPG is under development by Big Huge Games, which 38 Studios purchased from THQ. But beyond that fairly basic information, neither EA nor 38 Studios released much about the new title. That changed a bit today when bestselling author R.A. Salvatore, who serves as Executive Creator of Worlds at 38 Studios, spoke about his role at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

In a talk titled, "From Franchise To Fantasy: How to Build a Universe Worthy of Devotion," Salvatore spoke mainly about Copernicus, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game whose universe he created from the ground up with Schilling and others at 38 Studios. He revealed that the Project Mercury RPG is actually part of the Copernicus universe but will be set in a different time period than the MMO.

Salvatore said he and his team spent six months developing a 10,000-year history for the world of Copernicus and Project Mercury so the artists, writers, designers and programmers would have a solid basis for development before work even began on the project.

"That was what I insisted on. We need a huge history. We need deep threads so we're all going to be painting on the same canvas. You need consistency. It has to make sense. The way the races interact with each other has to make sense. You have to know how it all fits together. The way you do that is you do a history of the world," Salvatore said.

Salvatore is best known for his novels set in the Forgotten Realms universe, but he's also an avid MMO gamer, and he spent much of his talk telling stories about his time spent playing the original EverQuest. The author has also spent decades playing Dungeons & Dragons, and he tested out the early ideas for Copernicus on his D&D group. Although he's a writer at heart, he said he also understands what game narratives need.

"The primary difference between writing books and writing games is, when I write a book I'm giving you characters to live vicariously through. Even though we will have iconic characters in our games, the most important character in a game is the one you create," he said.

Salvatore also spoke about the importance of believability in games, especially MMOs, where players are asked to ignore the way the world really works in order to buy into a fantasy experience. As an example, he explained the way player deaths will be handled in Copernicus.

A system called the Well of Souls is introduced at the beginning of the game, and players learn that the device is able to bring people back from the dead, if they have met the right conditions. The Well of Souls also plays an important role in the game's storyline, as its keepers have a special position in the world's hierarchy.

"So what we tell all of the content guys is, what would that do to the world? What would happen if someone came up with an immortality pill? What would that do to religion? This is the way we are approaching the entire Copernicus IP," Salvatore said. "Think about the power of the people who turned the Well of Souls in these cities on. Especially if they could turn them off."

38 Studios is a dream team of creative talent. In addition to Salvatore and Schilling (also a longtime MMO fanatic), the company has pulled in legendary artist Todd McFarlane and former Bethesda Softworks developer Ken Rolston. The latter was the lead designer on The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion before joining Big Huge Games.

Although the world of Copernicus is just now coming into view, it's going to get a whole lot bigger. 38 Studios says its new "entertainment products will include a massively immersive Online Entertainment Experience that transcends the traditional MMOG genre, novels, comics, toys, console games, movies, TV, and more." EA said Project Mercury is planned for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, but no date has been announced. 38 Studios has not yet revealed a publisher for the Copernicus MMO.